Tuesday, 16 February 2021, 4:40 pm
With all of Lake Wairarapa to play in, it can be a lonely
life for a juvenile kākahi, the native New Zealand
freshwater mussel. While there are plenty of the adult
mollusc living on the lake bed, juveniles are few, and it is
cause for concern.
This year’s annual kākahi
monitoring survey day at Lake Domain Reserve in the
Wairarapa recorded reasonable numbers of adult kākahi, but
not a single juvenile.
The kākahi monitoring
programme, now in its seventh year, is one of a number of
projects underway at Lake Wairarapa as part of the Wairarapa
Press Release – Greater Wellington Regional Council
The council is urging the community to check for LAWA website warnings and alerts, following the emergence of toxic algal blooms in several rivers in both the Ruamahanga and Kapiti Coast catchments.
It advises caution to swimmers in the Ruamahanga and Kapiti Coast catchments and to keep dogs on leashes – as new amber alert level warnings are in place for Otaki River and the whole of the Ruamahanga River.
The council’s senior environmental scientist Dr Mark Heath says, “Toxic algae has increased to amber alert levels in the Ruamahanga and Otaki rivers so we strongly advise to check for toxic algae before you swim, and to keep all dogs and children away from the river’s edge. With warm and dry weather predicted over the next week it is likely that this risk will increase.”
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